Tens of Thousands to Visit Satmar Rov’s Kever for Yahrtzeit

Today, Satmar chassidim and Yidden around the globe will commemorate the yahrtzeit of Rav Yoel Teitelbaum zt”l, The Satmar Rov and author of Divrei Yoel. Today, like last night, only men will be permitted into the Kiryas Yoel cemetery.

Kohanim are warned that entry to the ohel for them is possible only through the upper gate, near the yeshiva. Use of the lower gate pathway, which is halachically too narrow for kohanim to use, precludes their entry through the cemetery.

Visitors are requested to not block the thoroughfare by stopping to recite Tehillim or other any other lengthy tefillos. No tables for solicitation, sales of seforim, or collections of tzedakah are permitted within the ohel or anywhere inside the cemetery gates.

Since the passing of Rav Moshe Teitelbaum zt”l, the late Satmar Rebbe, his son, Rav Aharon Teitelbaum, has led the Satmar kehillah in Kiryas Yoel, while his other son, Rav Zalman Leib Teitelbaum, leads the kehillah in Williamsburg.

Rav Aharon’s kehillah in Williamsburg is quite large and he occupies the important pulpit that his venerated great-uncle, the Divrei Yoel, established in the early 1970s. Rav Zalman Leib, resides in Williamsburg and occupies the pulpit originally established by the Divrei Yoel upon his arrival in America in 1947. The successor to that pulpit upon the passing of the Divrei Yoel was Rav Zalman Leib’s father, Rav Moshe, author of the Beirach Moshe. Rav Zalman Leib also has a considerable following in Kiryas Yoel, and they, too, have established their own growing school system and chain of shuls.

On the yahrtzeit of the Divrei Yoel today, a massive pilgrimage of Yidden will visit his kever. In addition to the kever of the Divrei Yoel‘s wife, Rebbetzin Alta Feiga Teitelbaum a”h, the ohel also contains the kever of the Beirach Moshe, whose yahrzeit is on 26 Nissan.

During the course of the day, thousands of people will pass through the ohel. Many will shed tears in earnest prayer, beseeching the rebbe to intercede on their behalf for good health, shidduchim and livelihood, for themselves and/or their loved ones. Many will deposit kvitlach (petition requests) as well. Chassidishe rebbes, rabbonim, roshei yeshiva and otherswill be found in the crowd, waiting on line to enter. The cemetery has become a requisite stop on the map of many Yidden all year long.

In earlier times, the Beirach Moshe held the yahrtzeit tish in the huge main shul of Kiryas Yoel. Beginning in 1999, the Beirach Moshe held the yahrtzeit tish in the late afternoon, after visiting the ohel during the day, near his summer residence in Swan Lake. Rav Aharon, his older son and then Kiryas Yoel rov, conducted his yahrtzeit tish in the main shul of Kiryas Yoel. After the Beirach Moshe was niftar, the yahrtzeit tish continued being conducted by Rav Aharon and Rav Zalman Leib in the two different locations.